Chanelle,
I am a mother of a now 20 year old young man. While he was in high school, I never quite understood him getting so frustrated with some of the teachers he had and why some of his grades were not so good and other grades were excellent. At times he acted so burned out, something I considered laziness back then.
Well, we are both attending college now. I totally understand him, and I do understand you. To get straight As in my college, I had to sacrifice my private life completely... I did not have a life, especially for the last 6 months. My grades went down, part of the reason was my frustration with the instructor. She is not a teacher... her heart is not in it and she's got too many other irons in the fire. Additionally, she just doesn't have the gift of teaching, which made all of us students have to work twice as hard on a subject which could have been stimulating and a lot of fun. By her inability to explain the subject matter and be precise with her instructions, overbearing in her mannerism, and overblown in what she thought of herself, she took the fun right out of it. I don't want to get into all the details, but all I want to say is "I understand where you are coming from". To be able to understand your side, I had to become a student again myself. It changed my perspective, and I love my son so much more now, especially for not getting totally frustrated with me for calling him "lazy" sometimes. Instead of being critical of him presently, I can encourage him, and be a compassionate listener just because I know what it is like.
Please remember, sometimes parents do mean well, but sometimes it's our own shortcomings and failures we try to cover up by expecting too much from our children. She means well... if you keep that in mind and just tell her how much you appreciate her input and that you will try to do better in the future instead of being defensive, you may ease the tension at your home. Get her involved in your assignments, show her what you are working on, ask her for advice... make her feel important and pray most of all for wisdom in how to handle the situation.
Let us know how things develop.
Angie